I was in the capital city of Kampala for 5 days and for me that was about 4 too many. I am back in what the people here are calling my “hometown” Mbarara. The capital city is so dirty ad so full of people that you can just feel your brain starting to wind up and get stressed out. I seriously don’t know how people live in that place. There are slums everywhere and the traffic is absolutely unreal. There is bumper to bumper traffic on almost every street you turn down. You can see the picture of a road here that is crowded with the taxis that carry people around the city.
These taxis are supposed to carry a maximum of 14 people and in the city they aren’t too bad about overcrowding (15-17 people is ok) in the villages though they can crowd them up to twenty five plus people. You can see in the second picture that there are a few people walking in and out of traffic as well. The cars aren’t moving overly fast but they aren’t putting along either. If you want to cross you just go and hope for the best.
There are also the “boda-bodas” which are the motorcycles that also act as taxis whipping in and out of traffic so nearly scraping their handle bars along each vehicle as they go. I like riding the bodas but sometimes you just have to close your eyes as you can’t believe that they are actually going to make out with you alive. (Karlee, this is the city that your foster child lives in just not the exact area)
The other interesting thing is that you can imagine if you are trying to turn on to the street with all these taxis bumper to bumper there are very few chances to pull in. So what do you do? Just go whenever you feel like it, all you need is enough space to get one headlight in and you are golden. The crazy thing is that with all these vehicles and people and bikes…..very few accidents. It’s quite the event to witness or experience with your eyes closed as well.
So I am really happy to be here in Mbarara and can't wait to get around to see so many of my friends.
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